Officials are now reporting that AirAsia Flight 8501 did not have permission to fly route on the day of crash. The bodies of victims from AirAsia Flight 8501 are still being returned to family members. Indonesian officials have also detected two large objects in the Java Sea which are said to be from the aircraft. Read more on the story and check out the photos below!
The flight crashed halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore carrying 162 passengers and crew members. After battling extreme weather conditions, rescue teams have tripled the number of bodies pulled from the sea. Sonar equipment detected two large objects on the ocean floor of where the plane reportedly crashed. A remote-operated vehicle captured images of the ocean for confirmation. Indonesia’s transportation military said AirAsia did not have permission to fly the route from Surabaya to Singapore on the day it crashed in the Java Sea, reported by the The Wall Street Journal. Transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata, said that flights were allowed before October, but during that month a permit was issued that only allowed flights along the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for the winter of late 2015 to early 2015.
Tommy Soetomo, the head of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, said AirAsia could fly the route as the company “had a slot to fly on Sundays.” Barata says that AirAsia should have returned the slot because of the new permit, and that the information was indeed outdated. One of the objects detected in the ocean was measured at 31 feet by 15 feet and 20 inches high. The second object was 24 feet by 20 inches. A spokesperson told reporters, “I’m confident this is part of the AirAsia plane.”
Check out the photos in the gallery!
